Petrolprices.com says the emphasis on actual real-world emissions, in the wake of the emissions scandal, will affect drivers of German cars in particular.

Jason Lloyd, managing director of the site, said: “New vehicle excise duty (VED) rules coming in to force in May are likely to expose cars that exceed the original test levels claimed and this will result in higher bills of up to £500 a year per car.

“In some cases if a diesel car driver has removed their diesel particulate filter from the car there are possible fines of up to £2000 for the owner and also the garage that did it.

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“In our view it’s about time the Government closed this loophole and started to get these really high polluting cars off the road or hit the driver hard in the wallet if they want to keep driving one.”

What else is going on?

New cars also face tough new

Euro 6 standards have been being introduced on a rolling programme since September and are said to produce the cleanest cars in history.